Peppermint Buttercream
by aguabella
Summary: A Makoto, Makoto/Nephrite snippet following the very last scene of "You Can't Go Home Again, That's What They Say". Cupcakes are involved.


**Title**: Peppermint Buttercream

**Character/pairings**: Makoto, Makoto/Nephrite UST

**Rating**: PG

**Summary**: following the very last scene of "You Can't Go Home Again, That's What They Say" a short little snippet of what happens after.

**A/n**: unbeated randomness sparked by comments with sea_thoughts.

* * *

Makoto wanted about to kill Kale, that was, if she actually thought it would do any good. Not to mention the fact she finally (after almost seven years as the resident chef for the senshi) had someone that appreciated the time it took to cook enough food for roughly dozen people. Or Usagi. It wasn't that her friends didn't appreciate the effort she made, Makoto knew that, but she just didn't think they understood what it meant to cook for everybody, all the time, almost everyday.

And, of course, the cupcake recipe. Makoto had really wanted that cupcake recipe. So killing Kale did her no good.

She just wished he hadn't said that. Not in front of Nikolai, at least.

Not that the thought of seeing Nikolai had in any way entered into her mind when she had sucked it up yesterday and decided to call Kale to see if he could show her how to make the cupcakes. Not even when she stood in front of the mirror for about twenty minutes before leaving today, making sure her hair was not doing the frizzy thing it tended to do, and that her neck line didn't plunge too much. It scooped, thank you very much, accenting her curves, and according to Minako bringing out her eyes.

No, Nikolai hadn't entered her thoughts at all. Makoto just liked to look nice, was all.

It was just…ever since the shitennou came back into their lives, it had been a slow process getting back on even ground with them. Usagi, bless her heart, had accepted them almost immediately, but it hadn't been as easy for the rest of them. It still wasn't easy.

Nobody had been ready for them and the feelings that would resurface along with them. Herself and her fellow senshi least of all, but they had returned and were slowly making places for themselves in Mamoru and Usagi's lives, meaning in the senshi's lives as well.

Hotaru's party three weeks ago had been the turning point. A first step. The lines of communication slowly opening, truces being declared. Tempers tapering off. (Expect maybe for Rei, Makoto mused.)

For Makoto Kino, the second step had been the call she made to Kale yesterday.

So now she stood in the middle of quite possibly the kitchen of her dreams, just barely beating out Haruka and Michiru's kitchen, covered in flour, watching as Usagi, Ami, Mamoru, Zeke and Justin munched happily on the cupcakes she and Kale had spent the day making.

Looking down at her now dirty top, Makoto frowned, dusting herself off. She had forgotten how messy it was to make cupcakes from scratch—From scratch! Kale made his cupcakes form scratch! It almost brought tears to her eyes after living for years with Rei's tendency to make them out of the box. For that alone Kale was officially on her list of people that rocked. And had he had soft brown eyes, a quick, warm smile, and a whiskey laced voice then he'd be on another list too. Minako was lucky he didn't.

As it was Kale just had a mean streak, teasing Nikolai as he gaped at them, causing the other man to stalk out of the very messy kitchen seething in jealously. Because Makoto, for all she didn't remember, she remembered Nephrite well, and she remembered that look.

"Conway-san!" She exclaimed, flinging some extra flour at him, "You shouldn't have said that."

Kale only dusted himself off, smirking, "Don't worry, Kino-san, a little competition would do him good."

Makoto pursed her lips, grabbing a cupcake for herself, "I don't know…"

"Trust us, Kino-san, Nikolai-kun needs to learn not everything comes easy in life. Let him work for it a little." Zeke grinned, licking some cream of his lips.

"You're all very bad friends," Makoto pointed out.

Usagi giggled and Justin smirked. Makoto just shook her head and asked Kale if there was a place she could get cleaned up.

—

One thing had to be said about the shitennou's apartment, it was fantastic.

Kale had led her to a guest bedroom (which she later learned was the room Mamoru and Usagi normally stayed in when too tired to go home) and took a quick shower. He also had given her a new shirt so she wouldn't have to wear her dirty one. Slipping it on, Makoto reasoned it had to be one Zeke's or Justin's as the material didn't swim on her body horribly so.

By the time she got out and dressed, her wet hair sticking against her neck and shoulders, she headed back to the kitchen to find it empty except for Kale who was cleaning up and Nikolai, who sat at the island, dragging a spoon through the Peppermint Buttercream she had made.

"Stop being childish, it was a joke." She caught the last smattering of words that Kale spoke as sea-green and brown eyes turned to her.

Makoto forced a smile. "Uh, hi…the others?"

Kale smiled, dropping the towel in his hand onto the counter, "Justin and Zeke are introducing Usagi to the world Call of Duty III."

Makoto pressed her lips together. "Oh."

Before she could say anything else, Kale made his way to the doorway, "I think I'm going to follow your example and clean up, Kino-san. Feel free to use the kitchen as it was your own."

Makoto nodded and watched him go turning to face the man still seated at the island. Rolling her eyes at her own nervousness, Makoto straightened her shoulders and went to the fridge looking for a drink. Finding an assortment of beers, bottled waters, and sodas, she settled for some water, fingering clenching on the plastic a little too tight. The door closed behind her, she rested against the cool metal of the refrigerator, opening her water well aware of the set of eyes following her every move.

"The cream is great." He said first, the timber of his voice washing over her. "Kale told me you made it; it's very good."

Smiling politely, she bowed her head, "Thank you, Vassallo-san."

He grinned back at her, "Peppermint, right?"

"Yes," she pressed her back harder against the metal behind her, her eyes flicking down to where he twirled the spoon in his hand. He still had gorgeous hands. Hands she shouldn't be looking at, she reminded herself, and looked quickly away.

"It's my favourite, you know," he said and oh, Selene, he really needed to stop looking at her like that. Like he was thinking off the last time they shared a bowl of buttercream, a long time ago, wearing decidedly less. Then he smirked and she knew he was recalling the same memory. Feeling her cheeks burn, Makoto gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes.

Pushing herself off from where she leaned, she decided that maybe Zeke had the right idea earlier, and walked up to him, taking the spoon from his hand and dipping it into the cream.

"I remember." Taking a slow lick, she dared him to stop looking at her now.

Makoto watched in pleasure as his pupils dilated and dropped the spoon back into the bowl, heading to the living room, calling over her shoulder. "I'm glad you still like it."

—

In the living room, Makoto seated herself besides Mamoru and settled in to watch as Ami taught Justin and Zeke just why she was a strategic genius.

After a while, Zeke headed into the kitchen to grab drinks, coming back out an odd look marring his pretty face.

"Kino-san?"

"Yes," She answered distractedly, trying to blow Justin's character apart.

"I think your icing broke Nikolai. He doesn't look to be moving."

With a smug smile, Makoto cheerfully pressed the X button and watched as the leader of Justin's team died.


End file.
